Andrzej Baturo: 50 Years of Photography

About The Exhibition

The VASA retrospective exhibition of the photographic work of Andrzej Baturo covers fifty years of his life in photography. On display here are 59 images from his recently published book “Andrzej Baturo: 50 years of photography”. The book provides the opportunity to consider a body of work defining the vision and interest of an image-maker framing their text and position.

Andrzej Baturo was born in Poland in 1940, grew up under Russian style of socialism, discovered his interest in photography as a medium of expression, worked as a photojournalist, functioned as a curator, directed a photography gallery in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, is the general director of the FotoArt Festival in Bielsko-Biala and founder of the Foundation Centre of Photography also in Bielsko-Biala, Poland.

Many have defined his work as reportage or social commentary. I would include in this list of genera a personal vision, framing his perception concerning life in Poland until the late 1980s. As a photojournalist he did value photographing the usual orchestrated and scripted media events. Instead he turned his camera towards the urban environment and country villages, the everyday life of the everyday people. His images are metaphors for life under socialist times. In the 1980s Baturo stopped making images of “social life” because of the increase in censorship and the tightening of personal expression and reporting in Poland. In the 1990s he turned to photographing the mountains, not the life of the people, but the beauty of the landscape as only a photograph could exhibit.

This exhibition is important on a number of fronts. First we have the opportunity to view the development of a photographic vision over 50 years; second, we are given a selected view of life in post World War II in Poland; and third, we are introduced to a consciousness behind the camera. For Andrzej Baturo’s photographs are not images of reality but are statements of intention framing and constructing their own reality.

VASA Exhibitions over the years have provided a platform for individual and group exhibitions, collaborative exhibitions with various organizations and galleries and exhibitions that follow a particular theme or inquiry such as “Where Do We Go Now” curated by Rui Cepeda and the “Kharkiv School of Photography: Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics” curated by Igor Manko.

VASA Exhibitions are international and multicultural. The curatorial team has strived to present work that not only represents the photographers but also the social, historical and cultural. As an online international project, VASA works to engage various digital tools. Video, as an example, not only offers the potential for the presentation of works, it provides the opportunity and framework for the voice of the author to be seen and heard. Through image, text, sound and animation, VASA works to expand the exhibition paradigm and provide a rich experience for the viewer (as well as the author).

VASA Exhibitions provides a viewing and research environment by archiving all of the exhibitions in their entirety. For example, the viewer may view a 2009 exhibition as it was presented and not just traces of its existence.

VASA Exhibitions (a program in VASA) includes images, videos and sound works.